Investor's Corner
Elon Musk’s Boring Company could be worth $16B after Chicago-O’Hare tunnel
The Boring Company might have started as a lighthearted jest from Elon Musk’s Twitter sessions, but the tunneling startup is now tackling a very serious project. Just last week, it was selected as Chicago’s contractor for its upcoming high-speed downtown-O’Hare transport line. In a call to clients on Friday, a Berenberg analyst has stated that the Boring Co. could be worth as much as $16 billion if it completes the ambitious project.
The bullish insight into The Boring Company’s project in Chicago was expressed by Berenberg analyst Alexander Haissl. According to the Wall St. analyst, Chicago’s decision to tap the young tunneling startup as its partner for the high-speed transit line between downtown and O’Hare Airport “solidifies” The Boring Co. as more than just a side hobby of Elon Musk.
“Entirely dismissed as a sideshow hobby of Elon Musk, The Boring Company is proving itself capable of evolving into a viable and potentially exceptionally profitable infrastructure business. In a single step, it provided the foundation and legitimacy that can turn The Boring Company into a highly valuable asset,” Haissl said.
The Berenberg analyst stated that his $16 billion estimate for the Boring Company’s potential valuation, provided that it succeeds in the Chicago transport line, was taken from the figures of the Channel Tunnel project, which connects England and France. According to Haissl, however, the valuation of the Boring Co. would likely add to the total valuation of Tesla, considering that the electric car and energy company will be a key supplier for the high-speed transport line.
“On conservative assumptions, and taking into account similar businesses like Getlink (formerly Eurotunnel), we estimate the potential enterprise value could be as high as $16 billion. With Tesla set to become a key supplier to The Boring Company, it will likely mean an early opportunity to take a stake in the business, potentially without cash consideration,” Haissl added.
Transit stations with all-electric pedestrian pods envisioned by The Boring Company
During the project’s official announcement last week, Elon Musk stated that Tesla would be designing and manufacturing the Boring Company’s pods for the downtown Chicago-O’Hare transport line. According to a Chicago Tribune report, Boring Company officials have stated that the pods would feature eight “guiding wheels” that will run along a nearly 18-mile track. Each pod would have four vertical wheels that resemble traditional tires on a car running along a concrete shelf on the ground. Four additional wheels, likely made with steel with a polyurethane coating, will be fitted on the sides of the vehicle to help the pod move by “running along concrete curbs” along the tunnel’s walls.
The Boring Company’s contract in Chicago would be the startup’s first high-profile project for public transportation. In true Elon Musk fashion, the tunneling company’s targets are ambitious. Musk, for one, is optimistic that the 18-mile high-speed tunnel would cost ~$1 billion to build. Musk also expects the Boring Co.’s pods, which are designed to carry 16 passengers at a time, to cover the 18-mile distance between downtown Chicago to O’Hare in just 12 minutes, making it faster than any public transportation in the city today, at a price that’s roughly half of what commuters pay for an Uber or a cab. Musk also expects to start digging within the next three months.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
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